July is Lakes Appreciation Month!
For NALMS and lake lovers everywhere, July is special – it’s Lakes Appreciation Month! You work and play on them. You drink from them. But do you really appreciate them? Growing population, development, and invasive species stress your local lakes, ponds, and reservoirs. All life needs water; let’s not take it for granted! Lakes Appreciation Month is a time to enjoy our lakes and reservoirs, spread the news of how important they are and how we can keep them special.
Thank You to Our Sponsors!
Lakes Appreciation Month Facts
- 1998, first year NALMS launches Lakes Appreciation Week to focus attention on lakes and reservoirs, their unique value as well as the management issues they face.
- 2003, Lakes Appreciation Week grows to become a month-long event, Lakes Appreciation Month, thanks to US EPA’s Year of Clean Water celebration that honored the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act.
- A poster was created by elementary students that won the poster art contest each spring. US EPA funded the poster contest for several years.
- Lakes Appreciation Month overlaps with the Secchi Dip-In which was founded in 1994.
- There are 41 million acres of lakes and reservoirs in the US.
- There are 3 million lakes in Canada.
- Each year, several lake-friendly state governors sigh proclamations declaring July as Lakes Appreciation Month.
Take a Lake Picture in July
Share your stories, events, photos, videos, etc. on social media! Be sure to use the hashtag #LakesAppreciation and tag NALMS! (We love to see your stories and lake photos.) Have you followed us on Facebook and Twitter yet?
Lakes Appreciation Month – Getting the Word out
July is a great time of year. This is the peak of the sampling season, the vacation season, and it is Lakes Appreciation Month. If you are a member of NALMS, you work for a lake or watershed group, or you just enjoying lakes, this is the time to spread the word about this month-long recognition. July is when we can show off our lakes and reservoirs and all the work we do on a daily basis to help management them.
Here are just a few ways for you to promote Lakes Appreciation Month: organize a shoreline clean-up, have your mayor take the official Secchi depth reading for the Dip-In, get a proclamation signed declaring July as Lakes Appreciation Month for your area, write a press release or article about a specific lake, reach out to your location public radio station to see if they would do a special in July about lakes, work with local outdoor sporting stores to have them help educate recreational users about the importance of our lakes, find a restaurant to sponsor Lakes Appreciation Month by donating a percentage of their one night proceeds to a local lake association, and best of all purchase a NALMS membership for a friend or co-worker.
Other random things to do for Lakes Appreciation Month
- Mark storm drains
- Switch over to phosphorus-free lawn fertilizer
- Put in a riparian buffer zone at your lake house
- Go fishing
- Bike to work more often
- Install rain barrels or a rain garden at your house
- Join a volunteer lake monitoring program
- Plan a lake-side picnic or party in July
- Learn about exotic nuisance species that impact lakes
- Go camping by a lake
- Hand out NALMS bumper stickers, “Save our Lakes”
- Celebrate with Alegae Bloom beer from Toledo, Ohio (mbaybrew.com)
- Fourth of July parade entry that highlights Lakes Appreciation Month (e.g., pull a boat that is decorated)